A letter to Hild
September 12, 2015 7:11 PM   Subscribe

My Story, Mystery: A Letter to Hild of Whitby by Nicola Griffith "DEAR HILD, You were magnificent, I think, but hidden: a black hole at the heart of history. We can trace you only by your gravitational pull. We know, for example, that the very first piece of English literature — Cædmon’s Hymn, certainly the earliest extant example of Old English vernacular and very possibly the first created — was forged in the fire of your influence; that in the so-called Dark Ages you built and ran Whitby Abbey, the foundation at the center of what became Northumbria’s Golden Age. There you hosted and facilitated the meeting of kings, princes, and bishops that changed Britain. But we have no account of you beyond a five-page sketch in a 1300-year-old history, most of which recites the standard hagiographic miracles and visions of the time. We have no gossipy Life, no scholarly monograph, no racy romance cycle. There isn’t even a grave."
posted by dhruva (5 comments total) 39 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh, I love me some Nicola Griffith. Thanks for this!
posted by allthinky at 8:03 PM on September 12, 2015 [3 favorites]


This sounds like an interesting book, and it is now on my to-read list. And the essay is fantastic.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:18 PM on September 12, 2015


What an awesome essay. Just so wonderful, she is so eloquent. I can't wait until the next Hild book comes out and gives me an excuse to reread the first, then plunge onwards.

She touches on so much that I've noticed - the habit of women, even those who are scholars and students of history - to be guided by the stories that are already there. To focus on finding new angles to the tales that have already been told. Mary Renault, writing about men. Hilary Mantel, writing about men. Griffith herself, asked for titles that shaped her, citing books about men. It reminds me also of many of those "best" lists - writers picking the best books of all time, critics and editors doing likewise. So many of the pickers themselves are men, and pick about 95% books written by (mostly dead) white men. Even the women pick (mostly dead) white men. It's as if the experiences of women, of people of colour, of religious and sexual minorities have never been worth telling stories about, and if they are cannot be considered "best". Perhaps because they are not default, the way the white men, both dead and someday to be dead, always are.

I'm glad that Griffith is trying to change this. I love her work and am with her all the way.
posted by Athanassiel at 8:30 PM on September 12, 2015 [7 favorites]


Thanks for this! Hild and Griffith are both new to me, pleased to have new books on my to-read list.
posted by jebs at 1:52 AM on September 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


I really liked Hild, and was surprised that my wife (who's typically got great taste in books) thought it was crap. I think the clunky sex scenes were too much for her, and maybe that it wasn't as ~literary~ as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall books. I dunno. I'm really looking forward to the next book.
posted by georg_cantor at 8:45 AM on September 14, 2015


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